That long overdue move by President Buhari

Last week things in Aso Rock and the entire country took a very interesting turn. The President broke his silence on the recovered loot and he came down heavily on one of his key aides, a kitchen cabinet member. First, the week started out dull and uneventful because of the spill off from the Easter holidays and like that saying goes, “you never know what the evening holds,” the week turned out fully packed with all forms of action dramas that could keep you glued to your seat for
long.

Tuesday after the Easter holiday, like most part of Abuja, the Aso Rock was still deserted showing that a lot of people had not resumed work. As has been the case for a while now, only one appointment was scheduled for the President for the day. This time, it was the turn of the Head of Service of the Federation to come brief the President.

On Wednesday, in the company of a couple other journalists, who cover the State House, I arrived ahead of the stipulated time for the Federal Executive Council meeting and noticed there was no sign of anything. We waited to see if the time for the meeting had been moved only to be told by a presidential media aide that it was not holding because the council’s secretariat had not resumed from the holiday. After sending out the story we got down to deliberating how this may actually not be a good sign since the President was absent at the last week’s FEC meeting.

Then a press statement announcing the suspension of the Ayo Oke, Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, and Babachir Lawal, the Secretary General of the Federation, dropped. This totally took away the focus from the FEC meeting and from the fact that the President was not even in the office. Let us take a short walk back to see why this happened.

For the SGF alias BD, I think he had it coming a long time. Remember the interim report by an adhoc senate committee headed by Shehu Sani last year indicted the SGF for receiving a contract worth over 200 million naira to clear “invasive plant species” , simply put to clear weeds or cut grasses in internally displaced persons camps in Yobe State. The job was reportedly done through a company, Rholavision Nigeria Limited, a company he was affiliated with and listed as a director, thereby breaching the country’s code of conduct for public officials as enshrined in the 1999 constitution. They had immediately recommended for his sack and prosecution.

Lawal denied the allegations and accused the lawmakers of attempting “to bring him down at all cost”. The President had set up an independent inquiry and had latter written to the National Assembly in response to their indictment of Lawal, and the call for his removal and prosecution over the alleged breach of Nigerian laws in handling contracts awarded by the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE). His letter was perceived to have cleared the SGF of wrongdoing stating that the senate did not give him the opportunity to explain himself. I can remember that the letter also said something like they
had not given him enough reason to sack the SGF. The President’s letter irked an interesting response from Shehu Sani, the lawmaker who headed the adhoc committee. “Corruption in the Judiciary and others is treated with insecticide while corruption in the government is treated with deodorant,” Sani said on the floor of the Senate when the President’s letter was read.

As if this was not bad enough, BD who somehow believed he was on a different pedestal from the others called the bluff of the Senate whenever he was invited. He was a member of the President’s kitchen cabinet, a friend to the President and never hid that fact.

You see, BD was the lord and senior prefect of the Federal Executive Council, put together. He referred to it mostly as my Chambers or my FEC, most times we watched and laughed as he bullied ministers, calling them out in ways that made them look like secondary school students. I remember him saying he will bar journalists from his council chambers when we wrote a particular story and he actually carried out his threat albeit for only one Wednesday because we wrote
again that journalists were barred.

So, fast forwarded to Wednesday when the press statement announcing his suspension was released. BD was in a meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and had not seen it coming. I figured he may have gone into that meeting to actually discuss this matter but had no idea that the Presidency would actually make it public just like that.

Who is the Presidency? Was the question he asked reporters who accosted him to get reactions on his “suspension” which I believe is a nice word for goodbye or please just step aside you are causing too much confusion. The Presidency which he was loyal to with airs of the untouchable had turned him out in the cold. I can imagine that one of the most painful moments of the day for him had been to come out and find that you had not been suspended and then be hounded by
journalists armed with cameras to get your tiniest move or emotions. I need to state here that BD shed no tear contrary to reports that said he did. Give it to him, even at his worst BD knows how to make light of a bad situation. He was the Presidency, a part of it and a friend of it.

Meanwhile, I gathered that BD’s suspension may also be connected to his handling of the reconstitution of board appointments, a committee he was appointed by the President to chair.

Aso Rock sources disclosed that the President had discovered that the process of compiling the list had been compromised. This confirmed reports that people were asked to pay to get listed or to get posted to juicy parastatals. The President later asked the Vice President to chair that committee and go over the list. Finally, the appointments are coming through.

In my opinion, BD’s matter was an integrity test for the President especially with all the talks of his perceived selective execution of his anti-corruption war. He should have done this a long time ago. Remember the orphaned $43million? The President also suspended the DG of NIA and ordered a full-scale investigation into the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a residential apartment at
Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, over which the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has made a claim.

The investigation is also to enquire into the circumstances in which the NIA came into possession of the funds, how and by whose or which authority the funds were made available to the NIA, and to establish whether or not there has been a breach of the law or security procedure in obtaining custody and use of the funds. The committee chaired by the Vice President with the Attorney General of the Federation and the National Security Adviser to the President as members are already meeting. I can Imagine that they too are eager to find closure as to original parents of the money.

I am trying very hard not to talk so much about the money, but it is grossly worrisome and possibly treasonable that Nigeria’s foreign security service will keep that kind of money, in a system where the Treasury Single Account is in full force. According to Presidential Spokesman Femi Adesina who spoke on a live TV show, that kind of money has never been seen in one swoop. I am hoping that the pertinent questions surrounding the matter will be answered soon.

On that same Wednesday shortly after the drama with the SGF, the NIA DG shows up and freaked out. He couldn’t withstand clicks of the cameras and the confrontation with journalists. That was the beginning of the drama. You see why BD is the way he is? not ashamed of anything. Well, just to add that the DG shed no tear, too.

Never run from the press. The best way is to face them and answer their questions or simply say no comments. So the DG’s convoy drove off the glass house while we watched what if he would be allowed to go in through that way. Meanwhile, the cameras continued to click away until his convoy drove off again signaling he was refused entrance. Well, the media office later told journalists that he only drove that way to make a call. The call worked because the Presidential Spokesman actually came to ask journalists to leave the entrance of the villa. We did and the DG returned to meet with the Vice President. That was just too much drama to avoid the cameras, right?

On the other side of things, I think the event of Wednesday spiced things up a bit as for the first time in a couple of weeks the President on Thursday received more than one guest in a day. Three ministers who separately came to brief him. Better signals right?